Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Susan Zurenda. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Susan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

It can be difficult for a debut author to acquire a literary agent, much less a dream agent. The day my dream agent accepted the manuscript for my novel “Bells for Eli” is one of the most fortunate in my life.

Working part-time as a book publicist, I met my agent at a social function she attended in South Carolina a couple of years before I wrote my novel. She’d come South from New York to support one her authors with a new release. I was honored just to meet this agent who has represented a number of authors I greatly admire. I had no idea I’d ever pitch my own Southern novel to her.

I was prepared to query dozens of agents in hopes of finding representation for “Bells for Eli.”. I decided to start with the dream agent I’d met and work my way along the list. I checked her website and saw she was not accepting new clients. Thus, I knew sending a query letter would be pointless. With nothing to lose, I decided to call her New York office late on a Friday afternoon. Miraculously, the receptionist connected me with her. After I stuttered and stammered at the sound of my agent’s voice, I reminded her how we’d met (I had no illusions she actually remembered me) and asked if she’d consider reading my manuscript. There was a long pause, and I thought she’d hung up. But then she said, “Okay, send it to me. I hope I’ll love it.”

The following Monday afternoon, my dream agent emailed to say she loved my novel and would represent me.

Susan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a lifelong reader who was a journalist at a daily newspaper before teaching English on the college and high school levels for 33 years. I published and won awards for my short fiction along the way. After I retired from full-time teaching, I began part-time work as a book publicist with Magic Time Literary Publicity, a job that made me realize if I was ever going to write the novel in my heart, the time was now. I’m thrilled my Southern literary novel, “Bells for Eli,” is out in the world and appreciate the positive reviews and reader feedback it has received. “Bells for Eli” has received a number of awards, including The Gold Medal (first place) winner in the 2021 IPPY Awards for Best First Book—Fiction.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

As author of the literary novel, “Bells for Eli,” the reward comes in knowing the story has touched readers’ hearts and stayed with them.

Helping students engage in literature for 33 years as an English teacher convinced me that there is no field of study any more important. It brings knowledge, satisfaction, and wisdom. Literature reveals truths about what it means to be human more than any other discipline. It forces us to see as others see, to feel as others feel, to connect others’ experience to ourselves and thereby achieve greater understanding (the good, the bad, and the ugly) of our own human nature.

In a letter to his friend Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader’s mind.” This is my purpose in Bells for Eli: for my characters’ lives to resonate with readers after the novel ends. To consider the irony of fate the novel presents: how it can take with one hand and give with the other. How wounds of the heart from childhood might never leave and become the catalyst for decisions that bring this novel to a staggering conclusion, yet simultaneously, how boundless love can ultimately triumph in a world where cruelty and pain threaten to dominate.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My debut novel, “Bells for Eli,” came out the same week the Covid-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020. I was at the Southwest Florida Reading Festival in Fort Myers, FL, beginning my book tour, when the world shut down. I returned home to cancel 50 events spread among eight states. In the months following, I learned how to connect with readers online: through bookstore interviews, Facebook Live, Instagram books reviews, Zoom events, and the like. Marketing a book solely online was both challenging and rewarding.

I looked forward to a tour of live events with the paperback release of “Bells for Eli” in the spring of 2021. However, the week the paperback was released was also the week the Delta variant of Covid-19 escalated. This time, my tour was not cancelled, but fear of the virus, understandably, affected reader turnout.

In spite of the virus, “Bells for Eli” has reached an audience and been well received.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.susanzurenda.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanbeckhamzurenda/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanbeckhamzurenda/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_BECffM30&t=23s

Image Credits
Credit Jeremy Powers with the author photo of me sitting on the porch in a navy dress. None of the other photos need credits.